Try to use a magnetic field treatment of substrate and deposited film or only deposited film. Magnetic field: H ≤ 1 kOe, frequency 10-50 Hz.

during sputtering increase your plasma density. I/A ratio (see L.Hultman, Linköping univ) will help. but of course means an upgrade to your system. (combine with magnetic confinement, or superpose ICP plasma..MW plasma)

in small scale perhaps:

reduce pressure, increase plasma power, keep ion energy less than 200eV...

after deposition, laser annealing?

lukas

Lower gas pressure could enhance the crystallinity. Also moderate heating of the substrate or magnetic treatment of the substrate during the sputter deposition would influence the thin film crystallinity. However you should not forget the effect of material type. Thanks

Khedir

Usually lower growth rate and higher substrate temperature tends to help the crystallinity of the film. If heating is not an option, lower gas pressure and plasma power should help (unless some unintentional doping is a worry - in that case higher growth rate is better)

During sputtering from target, oxygen content tends to reduce causing vacancies and such. Sputtering in Oxygen environment or higher oxygen content should help too.

I have an idea that I used for ITO sputtering to help grow a good quality film with lower temperature. Can you deposit Li metal by vacuum or sputtering process? The idea is to deposit a seed layer only few nanometer thick then place the sample in the sputtering chamber. Do sputter even at room temperature and then annel it at low temperature but for longer period. I have used similar techniques for ITO and achieved excellent results. One more thing, the preparation of the substrate is very important i.e. it should be cleaned with all the usual cleaning techniques beforehand. Good luck and let us know if it was any help. Thanks

Effectively, you may influence two parameters to increase cristalization: i) the RF power deposition, ii) the reactive gas in the Palsma (oxygen). you can also try a buffer layer between the substrate and the films (Lithium or cobalt). Otherwise, you can think of a post traitement with shoot excimer laser processing optimizing fluence for not damaging the substrate. good luck!

Tanks for all the answers

There is a conclusion of suggested tips:

Lower gas pressure ;

Increase plasma power ;

Lower growth rate

Reactive gas in the Palsma (oxygen) ;

Magnetic treatment of the substrate before/during/after deposition ;

Seed few nanometer layer of Li or Co metal ;

Post treatment with shoot excimer laser ;

Heating of the substrate ;

Anneal it at low temperature but for longer period ;

Preparation (clean) of the substrate .

Best regards

Luis

I think you can try a combination of short-term heating (350°С) and then a magnetic field processing (H ≤ 1 kOe and frequency 10-50 Hz) in the process of solidification.

Thanks Yongbai Yin

I had before good results on substrate heating with deposition of Bi2Te3 thermoelectric films. But tried heating during deposition of LiCoO (300ºC) and was not enough.

Lay down your metal seed layer at the highest allowable substrate temperature and the lowest reasonable deposition rate, this will allow for the favorable low energy configuration. While I'm not so familiar with HCP systems, FCC metals deposited at a low rate (~.1nm/s) with substrate T ~ 0.3Tm grow well oriented. Once you have the seed layer with the desired structure, laying down the LiCoO at a low rate and highest allowable substrate temperature may eliminate the kinetic barriers keeping the film from reaching low energy crystal configuration.

Depending on the thickness of your film, you may want to do the deposition in an oxygen deficient enviornment and then anneal in an oxygen rich enviornment at the maximum allowable temperature for your Kapton. Metal-metal diffusion barrier is generally lower than metal- oxide.

Do you have the possibility to apply bias-voltage to the substrate? Sometime this helps quality of the coating

Hipims

Ithink that the lower growth rate deposition and lower gas pressure is enough to improve the crystallization